


sweet on you

by michuniverse



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship, Valentine's Day, it's cute af ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:21:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29427345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/michuniverse/pseuds/michuniverse
Summary: in the end, a nice valentine’s day for pepper. (alternatively: tony’s got too many emotions and not enough brain cells.) early pepperony, pre-iron man ft. mutual pining and sugar
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	sweet on you

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if this is OOC but oh well, it's cute and they're younger, ergo they can be dumber...right?

The numbers on her phone screen turned from 5:59 to 6:00 right as Pepper hit send on her last email for the day. She rolled her shoulders a few times, slid her feet back into her pumps, brushed a few loose hairs from her vision before getting up to grab her work tote. Outside her window, an ad for pink, red, white M&Ms looped on the LED screen, a chaotic display involving cartoon hearts, air kisses, and synchronized dancing. Today was Valentine’s Day—and Pepper had plans.

Oh, she hadn’t intended to have plans. About a month ago, Pepper’s mother had rung her about how her coworker’s son had just moved to New York, and _Virginia_ , _wouldn’t it be nice to show the boy around the city? He’s your age, he’s tall, he’s just finished up med school..._ She could practically hear her mother’s coy smile, the one that showed up more and more as her matchmaking attempts became desperate. At first, Pepper would bring up her busy career as Tony’s PA to excuse her continued singledom, and there was a bit of truth in that. But that bit of truth was complicated, and confusing, and almost certainly had commitment issues towards anything that weren’t his robots. So eventually, she caved to her mother.

A week later, she had a boyfriend for the first time since she started working for Tony.

Pepper drifted around the office to check she had stuffed all the essentials into her tote. Notepad? Yes. Starkphone? Yes. Water bottle? She turned towards her desk, frowning as all the objects were too short to be hiding it somewhere. Maybe she’d knocked it into the trash can again? As she peered into the bin, she heard someone clear their throat behind her.

“Looking for this?” 

Tony stood in her doorway, Metallica t-shirt and faded jeans, dangling her sky blue bottle between his ring finger and thumb. He had a bit of grease smudged on the other fingers—as well as on his forehead, she noted—and he placed the bottle gingerly on top of a filing cabinet.

“You left it in the lab when you prepped me on tomorrow’s schedule. Not like you to be forgetful, Ms. Potts,” he said with exaggerated concern. “Careful, or we might have to let you go.”

“Then who will come pick you up the next time you’re trashed in Soho?”

He barked out a laugh and reclined against the door frame with a smile. Pepper grabbed her bottle and straightened out her bag, ready to go. Striding over to the door, she tilted her head with a smile.

“Mr. Stark.”

He straightened up. “You heading out already?”

She nodded, feeling her smile tighten. “Yes. It’s a holiday, thought I’d leave at a normal time for once.”

He looked upwards, eyes squinting for a second as the cogs turn, and then something clicks. A smirk appears. “Valentine’s day, of course. You got a hot date?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.”

Pepper stood up taller, staring down Tony’s bright brown eyes. But the teasing she expected does not come, nor any sarcastic retort. Instead, a flurry of microexpressions passed through his face, ending with a knitted brow and a serious set in his lips. Then that disappeared too, behind something purposefully easy.

“Oh,” he said. “Well, Ms. Potts, I hope it goes well.”

He inclined his head, and with a parting smirk he’d turned down the hallway, towards the east wing elevator to his lab, towards another late night of mechanical fiddling or booze sipping or both. Pepper felt something stir regretfully in her, but she squashed it down. She needed to hurry, or she’d be late for the reservation and she would’ve left early—and been caught by Tony—for nothing.

***

It did not, in fact, go well.

In hindsight, Pepper reflected that starting a relationship two weeks before Valentine’s Day was probably not prudent, but she hadn’t set any high expectations for the day. Romance, passion, she didn’t need those things yet. Just some sweetness, thank you very much, some chocolate and kisses and a warm feeling that could wash over her before she fell asleep that night.

But the evening began with her date remarking that her dress was rather low cut, and Pepper hadn’t even known whether to take that as a salacious compliment or a snide throwaway. In any case, she’d crossed her arms and let the moment pass. Then the conversation was fine for a bit, just the standard flirting lines and how-was-your-days, but then the topic turned to politics and they got into quite a tussle about foreign affairs. Pepper tried to move them on, but the man was quite riled up.

The final straw was when he’d mentioned Tony— _and that Tony Stark, it’s so irresponsible to hand our best military contracts to a careless playboy_ —and Pepper had tersely told him to shut his mouth. Dinner was icy after that. They decided to skip dessert, which was a real shame because she had looked forward to trying the restaurant’s famous chocolate lava cake. Their taxi traveled within a cloud of silence, and when she arrived at her condo complex, he’d kissed her on the cheek and said he’d call tomorrow. She went up alone.

As the elevator climbed the floors, Pepper tried to remember how much of a bottle of red remained in her fridge. It wasn’t too late to spend the day as she had any other year, enjoying some wine paired with a Nora Ephron film. The thought was comforting, but it quickly lost the spotlight when she arrived at her apartment door. There was a medium-sized brown paper bag, stuffed with pink tissue paper, leaning slightly on her door. She picked it up, and found a note attached to the handle:

“Just in case he’s an asshole. -TS”

Inside was a box of dessert-inspired truffles and a single rose, golden petals bleeding into crimson at the edges, tied with a ribbon. As a smile broke across her face, Pepper pushed into her apartment, bag in tow. She’d fold the tissue paper later into neat squares to save. She’d pull out the wine later for a warm buzz. She’d place the rose into a vase later for her bedside table. But first, she opened the box of truffles, scanned the various descriptions, found the one labelled as chocolate lava cake. She closed her eyes and popped it into her mouth.

***

“So how’d your hot date go?”

Tony was leaning against the doorframe again, this time tossing about a gadget he’d brought up from the labs with feigned casualness. Pepper finished typing up a message to a board member about rescheduling a meeting, then looked up.

“Mm, it was…unfortunate.”

The metallic gizmo flew up in the air, then dropped back into his palm.

“But,” she continued, “the strangest thing happened. I got a surprise package, and it made things better.”

“Oh?”

She nodded. “Yes, dear sweet Taylor Swift sent me the most amazing chocolates.”

Tony’s cackles echoed about the room, and Pepper found herself chuckling too. When he finally quieted down, he beamed Pepper a smile, quipped about how she better not run off with Taylor Swift when she had a job to do here, and gave her a salute farewell. He headed back down the hallway humming, pausing only to cuss out his plaything when he dropped it outside the elevator. Pepper found herself grinning softly. She pulled open her top desk drawer, laden with the chocolates from last night, and treated herself to another.

The sweetness melted on her tongue and in her chest.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to get the earlier notes of their relationship, when they had feelings but didn’t want to admit they have feelings, even to themselves. I think I imagined Tony to just be…confused. Or at least he thinks he’s confused. In reality he’s jealous and wants to show that he too can do something nice for Pepper on Valentine’s Day, but he’s just like, oh I’m just concerned that he’s an asshole, so I’m going to step in his place in case he screws up. Oh Tony.


End file.
